Giraffes, Kayaking, Caves, & Sea Lions

For my Spring Break last week, Byron and I decided to take a trip to the west coast to visit Byron's brother and his wife.  I'd never been to California before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but we had an awesome time!  It was such a blessing to spend a week with Travis and Leanne and to experience southern California with them.

We took an early flight to San Diego and as soon as we landed we headed straight to the zoo.  We spent 5 hours there and still didn't see the whole zoo...It was huge!!

We were at the airport in Atlanta early enough to
watch the sunrise from our gate before boarding.

Oh, how I love these animals.

Top Left: African Elephant
Top Right: Only the best animal ever.  Seeing them in person made me really miss Africa.
Bottom Right: Asian Elephant
Bottom Right: Koala (Byron made the most perfect sound effect for this guy.)

We left the zoo and stopped at Hodad's for some delicious hamburgers and milkshakes for dinner.  It was delicious.  I wish I'd taked pictures.  The best hamburger I've ever had.

Sunday morning we headed into La Jolla to kayak around the seven caves.  The water was freezing!  Byron and I shared a kayak, and it was a much more enjoyable outing than our honeymoon kayaking trip since I wasn't sinking!!  As we kayaked, sea lions would swim past us.  It was awesome.  I love seeing animals in their natural habitats!  Dr. Seuss owned an oceanfront house in La Jolla -- pretty cool, right?

We were supposed to be able to go into the caves, but the water was too rough :(

Once we turned in our wetsuits, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around La Jolla.  Overlooking the cliffs we could see a group of sunning sea lions.

We climbed through a little cave to get here.  Of course Byron had to climb the rocks!

We ate dinner at Brockton Villa. [I loved eating outside so often!]  The food was delicious, and luckily the restaurant gives recipe for their Coast Toast, which was insane -- so good. 

We walked down into a cave after dinner.  In the 1920s a man, whose house was atop the caves, decided to dig through his floors and into the caves to make a tourist attraction {it worked, obviously} and charged people to walk the steps down.  It was also used to smuggle in alcohol during prohibition.  Sneaky, sneaky.

of course, Byron had to play on the rocks in the cave!

This little sea lion hopped up on the rocks to look at us . . . maybe he thought we'd give him food?
Silly pup, we cleaned our plates!

I loved La Jolla.  It's a great coastal city with cute restaurants and magnificent views.  Definitely a great start to our trip!